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Book Reviews

The Diet Dropout's Guide to Natural Weight Loss

Find Your Easiest Path to Naturally Thin

Many people who struggle with excess fat don’t know how they got there and imagine that it is impossible to lose the weight. The Diet Dropout’s Guide to Natural Weight Loss parses down everything people will need to know to embark on the last diet they’ll ever need: it’s based on common sense, something lacking from much of the weight-loss literature out there. This book is slim, simply written, and matter-of-fact in its approach—a welcome respite from so many in-your-face “motivational” weight-loss titles. The book is designed to create healthy habits for the rest of one’s life.

Dr. Spencer never forbids any particular food or beverage, but he makes it clear that obese or overweight bodies can be understood as an accumulation of several specific bad habits. It’s a particularly gentle way to reach his readers, with the message being that if one wants to lose weight, it’s up to them. At the author’s recommendation, it’s easy to apply a cost-benefit analysis to a soda or pizza slice to decide if it’s worth eating the offending food. Other advice includes eating more vegetables, watching less TV, drinking less soda, exercising more, and so forth, in order to get closer to weight-loss goals.

A checklist, “Naturally Thin Habits,” outlines the simple interventions discussed throughout the book. Readers should check their predilections towards unhealthy habits against the list as they move along at their own pace toward becoming naturally thin. The author also provides an excellent multi-tiered approach to countering cravings, including visualizing the tempting food with an undesirable element; Spencer suggests hair or mold. In real situations, one should be able to quickly recall their well-practiced visualization in order to render the once-craved food far less exciting.

The Diet Dropout’s Guide is well-referenced and authoritative, but the book positions itself in both tone and content as a friendly, upbeat ally to anyone hoping to drop some pounds. This is an important book for the many dieters who don’t know how they became so unhealthy because the focus is on adding one healthy habit at a time. A few simple recipes incorporating more whole grains, yogurt, and vegetables are included, all with five or less ingredients.

Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The author of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have his/her book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Review make no guarantee that the author will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.